MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — The emergency manager review team
investigating Muskegon Heights Public Schools was told the district’s deficit
reduction plan, which includes a 40 percent wage cut for employees, is not
realistic, according to MLive. Glenda Rader, Michigan Department of
Education’s deputy director of state aid and school finance, told the review
team she had “serious reservations” that the plan could be approved.

According to MLive, the district’s deficit currently
stands at about $9.4 million. Under the proposed plan the district would reduce
spending by $3.2 million for the next two years and then by $3.5 million the third
year with the goal of running a surplus by 2015. Officials running the district
said that salary and benefit cuts would be needed since staffing costs make up
about 80 percent of the school’s expenses, though they did acknowledge the
proposed 40 percent cuts were “unrealistic.”

According to MLive, the district needs to have an
approved deficit reduction plan in order to continue receiving state aid. Rader
told the review team the district’s progress was unsatisfactory, with last
year’s deficit at 48 percent of district revenue, up from 20 percent the
previous year.